The Seabourn Encore is a gorgeous ship inside (except the Club - more on that later); and will certainly be the new star of the fleet when she is up to scratch, fully-stocked and staff trained. BUT based on our recent experience aboard her first voyage, there are a few wrinkles to be worked out. The designer while talented with colour, texture and pattern, apparently wasn't an overly-practical ...

First the negative: I would have rated this cruise as a 5-Star one, but Seabourn's corporate police allowing smoking in so many places makes it hard to really rate the cruise line positively. They allow smoking on all of the balconies, which make one's use of the balconies hit and miss. Despite a corporate policy against smoking in the cabins, it is almost certainly going on because we could ...